Popular searches
We are recruiting for a Finance and Operations Lead
About the Centre for Collective Intelligence (CCI)
The Centre for Collective Intelligence (CCI) pioneers innovative approaches to large-scale public engagement, combining deliberative democracy, advanced research methodologies, and cutting-edge digital technologies to tackle society’s most pressing challenges. Currently incubated within Nesta, CCI is evolving into an independent organisation, scaling our work globally to deepen democratic participation.
We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Finance and Operations Lead to join our senior leadership team and lead the commercial and operational success of the Centre through this critical phase of transition, growth and beyond.
As Finance and Operations Lead, you will play a pivotal role in shaping CCI’s future. You will help us raise external investment, oversee the delivery of our commercial strategy and drive financial success. You’ll help to ensure our ambitious growth targets are met while leading the operational transition from Nesta to an independent organisation. You will bring a strategic, entrepreneurial mindset and experience of securing investment and scaling a start-up, combined with a very hands-on approach to build robust systems, drive profitability, and ensure operational excellence.
This is a rare opportunity to build and scale an organisation at the cutting edge of collective intelligence practice.
Key Responsibilities
- Work with the team leads to develop accurate pricing models for our digital products, consultancy services, and commercial bids ensuring profitability and competitiveness.
- Develop and maintain robust financial models and forecasts, monitor cash flow and burn rate and runway to guide strategic decision-making and investor conversations.
- Provide strategic financial advice to the Director and leadership team, contributing to key business decisions.
- Identify suitable investment opportunities and potential funding sources for our tech products (VCs, angels, grants, strategic partners).
- Develop investor materials to position the Centre as an attractive investment opportunity.
- Ensure operational and financial discipline, creating the structures and reporting investors expect from a start-up.
- Guide the Director and senior team through investor negotiations, due diligence, and deal structuring.
- Lead on the development and oversight of effective business development, bid writing, and sales processes; including using AI to help increase the efficiency and quality of team efforts.
- Track our business development success and proactively propose initiatives to improve team win-rate.
Financial Management
- Ensure timely and accurate preparation of monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements and forecasting (P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow).
- Manage cash flow proactively, ensuring sufficient liquidity for operations and growth.
- Implement and oversee project-based financial tracking, ensuring accurate revenue recognition, cost allocation, and profitability analysis for each client project.
- Review and ensure financial terms of client contracts are robust, mitigate risk, and align with financial objectives.
- Prepare management accounts and insightful financial reports for the Director and Nesta exec team, highlighting key performance indicators (KPIs), variances, and actionable insights.
- Oversee the operational design and implementation of CCI’s transition out of Nesta into an independent legal entity.
- Lead on setting up critical business infrastructure, including legal frameworks, contracts, finance systems, HR processes, compliance, and operational policies to ensure the transition is smooth.
- Ensure seamless systems migration (finance, CRM, data systems) with minimal disruption.
- Develop and maintain operational KPIs to monitor business performance, strategy alignment and profitability.
- Responsible for oversight for all resource planning across our team, facilitating prioritisation decisions with the Leadership team, and introducing improvements to existing processes to support efficiency and decision making
- Lead on all People related matters across CCI, working closely with the Nesta People Team whose processes and policies we follow while still within Nesta, and introducing new People related initiatives which support our work.
- Design, implement, and optimise operational processes and workflows to enhance efficiency and productivity across all functions (e.g., client onboarding, project delivery support, invoicing).
- Support the Director to evolve and embed a high-performance, dynamic and entrepreneurial team culture, and ensure CCI’s values are embedded throughout the team and our work
- Manage relationships with key suppliers and vendors, negotiating contracts and ensuring value for money.
- Support the Director to implement the new strategy, strengthen ways of working across CCI, report to Nesta’s Board and establish our own CCI Board.
- Act as a key member of the senior leadership team, contributing to overall strategy, governance, and organisational culture and success.
- Act as a key interface between CCI and Nesta, building strong relationships with a wide range of contacts and peers such as Finance, Legal, People, IT, Business Processes teams.
- Collaborate with the senior leadership to align financial strategy with long-term growth and scaling plans.
- As the organisation grows, build and manage a small operations team.
Skills & Experience
- Proven track record in a senior finance or operations leadership role within an innovation-focused organisation, consultancy, or start-up.
- Financial qualification such as CIMA, ACA or ACCA
- Experience scaling an organisation from incubation or start-up.
- Experience and knowledge of raising venture funding and dealing with outside investors
- Hands-on experience managing organisational transitions and growth, including legal, operational, and systems migration.
- Strong financial acumen, with experience in business modelling, P&L management, commercial accounting principles, and ensuring profitability and risk management.
- Ability to analyse complex data, identify issues, and propose practical solutions.
- Strategic thinker with the ability to execute at pace in a complex, dynamic environment, while also having excellent attention to detail
- Excellent project management and problem-solving skills
- Collaborative leadership style with experience of being in senior leadership teams.
- Excellent communication skills to articulate complex financial and operational information to diverse audiences (board, consultants, employees). Ability to build strong relationships and influence others.
- Have experience in managing resourcing of multiple projects within a project-based or consultancy environment and have knowledge of best practices for effective resource planning and management
- Have experience of change management and be comfortable and enthusiastic implementing change and supporting other team members through periods of change.
- Demonstrate a clear passion and commitment to the vision of CCI.
- Past experience in the public opinion research / market research sectors.
What we offer
Salary: circa £64,800 plus array of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more
Location: This role is based in Blackfriars, London, hybrid working arrangement with a minimum of two days in the office
Term: Permanent
Reports to: Director, CCID
Making an application
To apply for this role, please submit your CV and cover letter before 8:00am on the 5th of January 2026.
Interviews will take place on the 22nd of January 2026.
At Nesta, we believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, more creative and gets better results.
We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop.
This means that when we are recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates. It also means that we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful.
We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part-time hours, job shares and other arrangements.
Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore
Popular searches
We are recruiting for a Deputy Director, Insights & Engagement
About the Centre for Collective Intelligence (CCI)
The Centre for Collective Intelligence (CCI) pioneers innovative approaches to large-scale public engagement, combining deliberative democracy, advanced research methodologies, and cutting-edge digital technologies to tackle society’s most pressing challenges. Currently incubated within Nesta, CCI is evolving into an independent organisation, scaling our work globally to deepen democratic participation.
We are seeking a dynamic, commercially astute, and visionary Deputy Director of Insights & Engagement to join our leadership team. This is a pivotal role with significant revenue targets, responsible for driving the growth of our research and engagement portfolio, ensuring unparalleled client success, and maintaining the highest standards of research quality. You will be instrumental in expanding our client base, developing strategic relationships, leading impactful projects, and leveraging technology to enhance our value proposition and impact in the market.
Key Responsibilities:
Business Development & Revenue Growth
- Drive significant revenue targets through proactive identification, pursuit, and conversion of new business opportunities within our target sectors.
- Lead the development of compelling, commercially sound proposals and pitches for complex research and engagement programmes, showcasing our unique expertise and demonstrable impact.
- Build and nurture a robust pipeline of prospective clients and projects, leveraging existing networks and establishing new strategic partnerships.
- Negotiate high-value contracts, ensuring profitability and sustainable growth for the team.
- Represent the Centre as a senior expert at industry events, conferences, and networking forums, actively generating leads and enhancing our market presence.
- Identify and develop new service lines or market niches based on client needs and market demand.
- Work closely with the Director and senior team to refine value propositions and business positioning in the UK and global markets.
- Help develop and implement CCI’s commercial strategy, including Go-to-Market (GTM) plans for our public engagement and opinion research services and products.
Customer Success
- Act as the senior client lead and trusted advisor for key accounts, ensuring exceptional client satisfaction and fostering long-term strategic relationships.
- Oversee the successful delivery of all research and engagement projects, ensuring they meet and exceed client expectations, are delivered on time and within budget, and demonstrate clear impact.
- Proactively solicit client feedback, address any concerns, and identify opportunities for upselling or cross-selling additional services. Identify potential problems before they happen and address them.
- Develop and implement strategies to ensure client retention and expand our footprint within existing client organisations.
- Work with clients to ensure they are commissioning and using our products/services to get the most out of what we offer. Identify and develop tailored solutions and recommendations to help clients achieve their desired outcomes.
- Act as the voice of our clients internally, sharing feedback and insights with internal teams like product development to influence future improvements and ensure we are meeting client needs.
Insights Leadership & Research Excellence
- Define and uphold the highest standards of research excellence, integrity and ethical conduct across all projects.
- Oversee the design and delivery of high-impact research projects — ensuring methodological rigour, analytical depth, and actionable insights.
- Oversee data collection, analysis, interpretation, and the production of insightful, actionable reports that drive client decision-making.
- Lead the facilitation of large scale/high-profile major events, providing oversight and mentoring of other facilitators including external associates on all projects to ensure deliberation excellence and inclusive participation
- Foster a culture of methodological innovation, encouraging the exploration and adoption of new research techniques and technologies to enhance our offering.
- Develop strategic collaboration with academic partners and technical experts to ensure research credibility and relevance.
- Ensure all research activities comply with relevant regulations, professional standards, and ethical guidelines.
- Implement robust quality assurance processes for all research outputs and client deliverables.
- Drive the production and dissemination of thought leadership content (reports, blogs, presentations) that positions CCI at the forefront of public deliberation and AI-enabled collective intelligence.
Team Leadership & Talent Development
- Coach, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of insights and engagement specialists, fostering a culture of continuous learning, accountability, commercial awareness and profitability.
- Provide strategic oversight and guidance to project teams, ensuring excellence in delivery and client management.
- Work with the Finance and Operations Lead to ensure all projects are appropriately resourced, identify and implement opportunities to increase efficiency and profitability across all of our projects
- With team Leads, codify, standardise and blueprint our approach to designing, delivering and reporting on public research and engagement projects; ensuring these ways of working become embedded within team practice
- Ensure understanding of and compliance with organisational policies across the Insights & Engagement team
Digital Product & Service Innovation
- Identify and evaluate opportunities for the development of new, scalable technology-driven products or services that can enhance our research capabilities, engagement platforms, or provide our clients with new insights.
- Work closely with the product team and Finance and Operations Lead to co-design MVPs and test hypotheses
- Work collaboratively with the leadership team and product team to assess commercial viability and strategic fit for new digital products/services, focusing on client value creation.
- Support the Director to implement the new strategy, strengthen ways of working across CCI, and report to the Board.
- Act as a key member of the senior leadership team, contributing to overall strategy, governance, and organisational culture and success.
- Ensure joined up collaboration and strategic alignment between the Insights & Engagement function, Design, Product and Growth functions.
- Build relationships and partnerships with other organisations to enhance our offering.
- Be an external-facing ambassador and expert for CCI; regularly speaking at sector conferences and acting as a media spokesperson.
Skills and Experience:
Essential
- Proven track record of driving significant revenue growth and achieving ambitious sales targets within a consultancy, start-up, or professional services environment.
- Extensive experience (10+ years) in a senior leadership role, encompassing both strategic business development and the delivery of complex public opinion research/engagement projects.
- Demonstrable success in building and nurturing strong, long-term client relationships, resulting in repeat business and expanded accounts.
- Deep expertise in a wide range of research methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods) and public engagement techniques, with an unwavering commitment to quality and rigour.
- Strong quantitative research skills — including survey design, data analysis (e.g., R, Python, SPSS, Excel), and interpreting large data sets.
- A highly strategic and commercially astute individual, with a clear understanding of consultancy/service business models and profitability drivers.
- Exceptional leadership skills, with a proven ability to motivate, manage, and develop high-performing teams.
- Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, including persuasive proposal writing and compelling presentation abilities.
- Strategic thinker with entrepreneurial mindset — able to identify growth opportunities, innovate new services, and drive initiatives from concept to delivery.
- Collaborative leadership style with experience managing multidisciplinary teams.
- Familiarity with AI technologies and their application in research or public engagement.
- Strong network within public sector, philanthropy, or policy-making communities.
- Personally committed to CCI’s mission
Desirable
- Experience in product development cycles (from discovery to MVP to scaling).
- Advanced degree (e.g., MSc, PhD) in social sciences, data science, political science, or a related field.
What we offer
Salary: circa £77,500 plus array of benefits, including private medical insurance, dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, eyecare vouchers and more
Location: This role is based in Blackfriars, London, hybrid working arrangement with a minimum of two days in the office
Term: Permanent
Reports to: Director, CCID
Making an application
To apply for this role, please submit your CV and cover letter before 8:00am on the 5th of January 2026.
Interviews will take place on the 20th of January 2026.
At Nesta, we believe that a diverse workforce leads to an organisation that is more innovative, more creative and gets better results.
We want our workforce to represent the diversity of the people and communities we serve. We also want our workplace to be one where different experiences, expertise and perspectives are valued, and where everyone is encouraged to grow and develop.
This means that when we are recruiting, we actively seek to reach a diverse pool of candidates. It also means that we are happy to consider any reasonable adjustments that potential employees may need to in order to be successful.
We recognise the importance of a good balance between work and home life, so we do everything we can to accommodate flexible working, including working from home, compressed or part-time hours, job shares and other arrangements.
Please just let us know in your application or at any stage throughout the process (and beyond) if these are options you’d like to explore.